Sweet plum dumplings
Food Editor at Kitchen Stories
"These sweet potato-dough dumplings are a classic dish in Austrian (called Pflaumenknödel or Zwetschgenknödel), Czech, and Hungarian cuisines. The strong potato flavor from the dough harmonizes wonderfully with the sweet-sour stone fruit in the middle. They are traditionally made with Zwetschgen, a prune plum native to Central Europe, but we had no luck finding the small purple fruits when we made the recipe in June. Luckily, normal plums work just as well! So feel free to also use small plums, apricots, or other stone fruits instead (if you use larger fruits, the recipe may only yield 6 dumplings). If you don't feel like pitting the fruit, you can just leave them whole. You can serve the dumplings along with melted brown butter, a delicious vanilla sauce, quark or ice cream. However, the sugar cubes, which can also be replaced by ½ tsp (cane) sugar, will melt into a delicious syrup with the soft fruit, making them not too dry at all, even without the sauce."
Difficulty
Medium 👍Preparation
Baking
Resting
Ingredients
Utensils
2 pots (large), sieve, potato ricer, bowl (large), paring knife, knife, slotted spoon, frying pan, cooking spoon
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How-To Videos
Quick vanilla sauce
How to prepare plums
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Nutrition per serving
Step 1/5
- 125 g floury potatoes
- pot (large)
Peel potatoes, cut in half lengthwise and place in a pot. Fill with cold water, bring to the boil unsalted and cook for approx. 15–20 min., depending on size, until tender.
Step 2/5
- 7½ g butter
- ½ egg yolks
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 45 g flour
- sieve
- potato ricer
- bowl (large)
Drain hot potatoes and allow to steam briefly in a sieve. Press through a potato ricer into a large bowl or mash them finely with a potato masher. Add half of the butter in small pieces, as well as egg yolks and mix well with a spoon or potato masher. Add salt and flour by the tablespoonful and knead well with your hands until the dough is no longer sticky. Add a little more flour if necessary. Let dough cool for approx. 5–10 min.
Step 3/5
- 2 plums
- 2 sugar cube
- paring knife
In the meantime, cut the plums in half, and remove the pit. Then press a piece of sugar cube into each plum and close it again.
Step 4/5
- flour (for dusting)
- pot (large)
- knife
- slotted spoon
Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan, then reduce heat so that water is only gently simmering. Using a knife, divide potato dough into 8 (or 6, depending on the size of the fruit) portions and roll into balls. With lightly floured hands, flatten one piece of dough at a time on an equally lightly floured work surface and place a plum inside. Then completely (!) encase with the dough and form into a ball. Continue in this way with the remaining pieces of dough and fruit. Then carefully slide the dumplings into the simmering, no longer boiling water with a slotted spoon and let them steep for approx. 10 min.
Step 5/5
- 7½ g butter
- ¾ tbsp sugar
- ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon
- confectioner’s sugar (for serving)
- frying pan
- cooking spoon
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a frying pan. Add breadcrumbs, sugar and cinnamon and fry until golden brown. Remove the dumplings from the water with the help of a cooking spoon, drain well and then roll in the butter-cinnamon crumbs. Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar and serve while still warm.
Enjoy your meal!
